From finance professional to national media personality, entrepreneur, and trusted advisor to thousands.
Ted’s career in giving financial advice began working for IDS Financial Services that quickly morphed into American Express Financial Advisors. At the age of 23, Ted was promoted to district manager and then quickly became the youngest Vice President in American Express Financial Advisors history. Ted rose through the ranks of leadership until he held the largest Group Vice President job in the company managing more than 1,000 financial advisors.
As Ted’s career progressed, he trained hundreds of financial advisors and promoted over 50 people to manager and vice president roles in the company. It’s during those years that he found his love of breaking down complex financial topics into easy to understand language for thousands of families and thousands of fellow financial advisors.
In the mid-2000s, Ted co-founded oXYGen Financial, the FIRST firm to target the underserved X & Y generations, hence the name oXYGen. It’s here where Ted became a visionary in the financial services industry, inventing the monthly financial subscription fee and developing cutting edge marketing that had never been seen before in the industry. The firm grew quickly over a decade, helping thousands of clients navigate wealth building, tax strategy, and business transitions and growing to more than $2.5 billion of assets under management.
But oXYGen was just the beginning. Over the years, Ted has founded or co-founded more than 10 business ventures spanning financial services, bookkeeping, insurance, concrete, marketing, IT services, software, and social media. Each venture was built on the same philosophy: cut through the sea of sameness and deliver real value through a unique brand experience. Ted has been recognized as one of the best branding and marketing minds in the country.
These entrepreneurial experiences taught Ted lessons he now shares on stages and screens across the country about business building, hiring, scaling, and the mindset required to succeed and exit companies.
Ted’s passion for translating financial concepts into plain English caught the attention of media producers along with his unique talent on television. In 2007, he founded Your Smart Money Moves which was widely recognized for a decade as one of the top personal finance blogs in the country. He also spent 15 years doing thousands of radio and podcasting experiences. The Shrimp Tank Entrepreneur Podcast became famous in more than 15 cities in America interviewing top entrepreneurs across the country.
But TV is where the magic really happened. Ted got a break in 2012 to appear on CNN’s Headline News and never looked back. He’s routinely appeared over the years on CNBC, CNN, Fox, NewsNation, and is now one of the featured guests on The Today Show as one of the top personal finance television experts in the country. He’s done more than 2,000 television appearances and has become known for his unique style of making difficult topics easy to understand for millions of Americans.
His keynote speaking engagements take him to corporate boardrooms, industry conferences, and stages for audiences in the thousands. Whether he's addressing a room of entrepreneurs or advising a Fortune 500 financial firm, Ted brings insight, energy, and actionable wisdom.
Ted has a simple belief system for success, life, and business building:
Whether you want to book him for a keynote, explore a consulting opportunity, or just say hello, Ted's team is here to help.